Is an AMT Pups die-cast by any other name worth as much? It would seem that collectors love these castings no matter what they’re called.
photo courtesy Jeff Koch

Model kit and 1:25 scale promo makers AMT got into the small-scale die-cast business in 1968, and promptly got back out again. Their Pups range, in 1:65 scale, consisted of four contemporary cars: Camaro, Mustang, Charger and Cougar. Opening hoods and button-type press-on wheels were the start of the range, with plans for more tools to come down the pike.

But AMT’s timing was off: They were launched at the same time as Hot Wheels, whose Spectraflame colors and fast-rolling wheels captured kids’ attention nationwide. Mattel’s new-car launch simply buried AMT’s in an avalanche of TV hype, and the four castings (today worth between $25 and $100, depending on condition) disappeared quietly.

Or did they?

AMT shuffled the tooling off to action figure maker Mego, who relaunched the line as Jet Wheels. Packaging was in a plastic garage, with a glue-on card claiming these were the “fastest cars in the world,” and a logo where the J was turned into a ramp for the car to fly off of. This, plus newly tooled thin speed-type wheels, was more in line with the new regime. Crucially, Mego also introduced four castings that AMT never got a chance to launch: a Corvair coupe, a 1969 Buick Riviera, a Corvette, and an AMC AMX two-seater. A set of eight open-wheel racers, contemporary Formula One-type vehicles, was launched simultaneously. But fragile axles and a still-too-limited model selection stopped the Jet Wheels line within a year of its launch, as well. Today, packaged street-car Jet Wheels will start at $50 for common models like the Cougar and the Camaro, and shoot north from there.

You’d think that would be the end. But these castings lived on yet again, in the hands of another manufacturing concern who marketed them as Super Speedy models. The conventional bright yellow blister cards had a loop-de-loop track illustrated on the card. The first S in Super Speedy was a close copy of the Jet Wheels J, in that it was turned into a ramp for a car to come flying off. The wheels changed again: They were wider, and had a sticker mag in lieu of a molded or painted wheel. The big news here, though, was that two more brand-new castings turned up: a 1969 Ford Torino fastback, and a 1969 Pontiac convertible. The Catalina, available in purple or the ultra-rare jade green, has never been done in small-scale before or since. Inevitably, Super Speedy models died a quiet death in the early 1970s, but for what you’d think was a quietly forgotten brand of toys, there’s surprising interest. Packaged Super Speedy models regularly top three figures, and we haven’t seen a Torino yet sell for less than $250.

(This post originally appeared in the April 5, 2007, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)